Written:
Of nine projects I wrote this year, four will have to be rewritten – that leaves five finished projects. All five of those stories have been submitted to markets, with two already accepted for publication. What’s interesting to note is that pre-Clarion, I was writing larger projects, but ones that ultimately were too flawed to finish or rewrite at the time. Post-Clarion, my stories are smaller and taking longer to write, but the first drafts are tighter and more coherent – I’m finally starting to nail the “right” plot/character arc with the first draft, which makes it easier to finish, polish and send them out. They’re better stories, because I’m becoming a better writer.
Last December, I declared 2006 to be the “Year of the Story”, as a way of forcing myself to evolve to a more publishable level of writing. 2007 is going to be “Year of the Novella”, with plans to write my Tacoma Steampunk trilogy and several stand-alone horror and erotica novellas (while continuing to write short stories). While I’d love to start writing novels again, I still think I need to acquire a few more writerly skill sets (including research skills) before I tackle the large projects. As the steampunk novellas will take place in the world I plan to set upcoming novels in, this approach can only be beneficial.
Submitted:
I submitted nine projects this year, of which six were written this year. I currently have six publications out on submission – the highest number of submissions I’ve ever had at once (although two are for reprint publication). I’m hoping that I can keep at least several items out at any one time during 2007. As long as I keep a fairly steady output of publishable projects, that should be doable.
Rejected:
I don’t keep stats for rejections. In fact, I have a shocking admission: I don’t even keep my rejections. Listen, I spent twenty years being rejected by THOUSANDS of casting directors. It’s not like I have a huge list of all the people who didn’t put me in their play or movie because of A, B, or C – I did my piece, was told “no”, and moved on without feeling the need to memorialize it or keep some kind of “souvenir” of my rejection. It should be the same principle for writing – at least for me, if no one else I know of.
If the agent or editor asks me to submit again in the future, I make a reference in a spreadsheet. I do keep track of where I send projects to and if/when they return, so I don’t send it to the same place twice (hey, I’m forgetful, it could happen). And if someone gives me good editorial advice, I take note of it. But keeping a box of actual rejection papers? I have a box labeled “Contracts”. I toss the rejections in the trash. I have no idea how many rejections I’ve received. It’s not relevant. Saying “I have ‘X’ total sales” is more important than saying “I have ‘X’ total rejections”. I know this attitude goes against everything most writers believe about rejections, but there it is.
Sold:
Teslated Salishan Evergreen (A Field Guide to Surreal Biology)
Take Your Daughter to Work (Subterranean Magazine #6)
Jetsam (Sybil’s Garage #4)
Last year I had one sale (“Ellensburg”), so this is a small improvement. But because I’m a slow writer, I don’t expect to ever have a year where I can run down a huge list of sales. In other words, this number isn’t going to be growing by leaps and bounds with each passing year. If in 2007 I get another three sales minimum, I’ll be happy. Of course, I’ll aim higher, but due to editor & agent response times and personal tastes, this is an area of my career I can’t fully control. I can only skew things in my favor by writing faster and getting more submissions out there. Until that happens, I need to be ok with low sales numbers. I am.
Published:
“At the Edge of Ellensburg” (novella, erotica)
In 2005 I had one publication (“Brimstone Orange”), so I’m breaking even this year. Next year will be better, with at least the three publications listed above. My only gripe about this year is that I still haven’t been paid for the novella, and don’t expect to be for quite a while longer. If there’s anything I’ve learned about publication, it’s to not count on the money arriving when you want or need it. Thank god for the day job….
Raymond Chandler’s Law:
It takes writing a million words of shit before you become a professional writer – or so the saying goes. Supposedly attributed to Raymond Chandler – I’ve never been able to find the exact quote or positive proof that he said it. But I like it.
To date, I’ve written close to 545,000 words – that’s the combined word count of all of my finished projects (not including any outlines, world-building notes or unfinished drafts). The bulk of those words belong to several completed but trunked novels, fyi. So, I’m halfway there, according to Raymond Chandler. I’ve published 28,499 words, which means that the percentage of publishable words out of 545,000 is only 5.2%. It’s not a shameful little number – the fact that it exists at all is encouraging. I think the point of Raymond Chandler’s Law is that you can expect to write close to a million unpublishable words before you acquire enough skills to start writing the publishable ones. If that’s the case, I’m 5.2% ahead of the game.